Final Report Summary - PROSCIE (Promoting science: does it work? Evidence from program evaluation)
Project context and results
During the fellowship, I have been working on different papers related to three topics in public economics: education, health and youth emancipation. As for education, I mainly completed papers I started before the project. The first paper analyses the effect of the increasing demand for higher education on secondary school graduates' labour market outcomes. The paper informs policy-makers that policies that increase university enrolment displace individuals who are not active in the labour market, and have also an effect on the labour market outcomes of individuals who do not invest in higher education, through compositional effects. The paper is currently being submitted at the Economics of Education review.
In another paper, Kevin Denny (University College Dublin) and myself estimate the effect of class size on educational attainment of high school graduates, using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) collected in 2003 for the United States and the United Kingdom. This paper finds that students do better on mathematics tests if classes are larger. This finding may appear to be counter-intuitive but it is by no means unusual: students may do better in classes where there are many students similar to themselves, parents' may compensate the investment in low-quality education by increasing other investments, or teachers may adapt their teaching style to the class size. An across-the-board policy of reducing class size will in general be an expensive investment in education although there may be particular circumstances or populations where it can be demonstrated to be warranted. Our evidence suggests that aside from being expensive it is also counter-productive. The paper has been conditionally accepted by Labour Economics. An article on our results appeared on the Irish Economy blog please see http://www.irisheconomy.ie/ for more details.
A third paper co-authored with Prof. Gilberto Turati (University of Turin, Italy) provides evidence on the sources of differences in inequalities in educational scores in Spain, Italy, Germany and France by breaking them down into their determining factors. Using PISA data from the 2000 to the 2006 waves, the paper shows that inequalities decreased in Germany and Spain whilst they increased in France and Italy. The breakdown shows that educational inequalities do not only reflect background-related inequality, but especially schools' characteristics. The findings enable policy-makers to target areas that may make a contribution to reducing educational inequalities. The paper is under second review at Education Economics.
Another paper, co-authored with Profs. Bertola (EDHEC Business School, France) and Checchi (University of Milan), analyses the heterogeneous pattern of selection into private schools across countries. Using Pisa 2009 data, we find that private schools cater to slower learners, and deliver worse test performances in countries where public schooling is better suited to high-talent students. Our results suggest caution in advocating public voucher schemes and other policies meant to make private education affordable for poorer families. Such policies improve both equality of opportunities and the productivity of society's educational resources if liquidity constraints keep poor and talented youth from attending better private schools. The paper has been submitted to Education Economics.
In another paper, I review the different policies implemented in several OECD countries in order to contrast the decline in enrolment in scientific degrees. The paper offers a spectrum of alternative interventions to contrast the decline in interest in science. Unfortunately, their implementation does not allow the causal effects of these policies to be identified.
Finally, I bought data from YouGov to analyse the relationship between education, financial literacy and indebtedness. This is still a work in progress.
The other two papers focused on conditional cash transfer programmes. The first paper, co-authored with Prof. Orazio Attanasio and Marcos Vera Hernandez (UCL), studies the effect of the conditionality requirement on child preventive health care and health status using data from the Colombian Familias en Acion programme. Findings show that lack of conditionality reduces by 53 % the number of growth and development check-ups that a child receives. An additional check-up reduces by 4.7 % a childs probability of suffering from acute diarrhoea, and increases by 14.6 % of a standard deviation his/her height. The paper shows policy-makers that although conditionality increases the cost of running a conditional cash-transfer programme, it has beneficial effects in ensuring children comply with preventive care, and that in turn preventive care improves children health status.
The third paper, co-authored with Ainhoa Aparicio (Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy) focuses on a conditional cash-transfer programme implemented in Spain since 2008. The cash transfer contingent in young adults' rented accommodation was introduced to promote youngsters' emancipation. The paper investigates the hypothesis that youngsters delay emancipation and family formation because they are budget constrained. Findings indicate that the subsidy increases the probability of emancipating by 0.9-2.3 % and couple cohabitation by 1.2-2.4 %. Emancipated individuals increase the probability of having at least one child by 4.8-8.1 %. The subsidy is more effective for young adults at the lower end of the income distribution, and for those living in high rental price areas. These results help policy-makers to better design this policy in such a way to target the subsidy according to rental price, and the individuals' income. The paper is an IZA Working Paper.
Project impact
Working on these papers has strengthened my ability to implement empirical analysis to educational issues, improved my knowledge of education economics, and widened my knowledge to two other topics in public economics: health and youth emancipation. Presenting the results in conferences and workshops has improved my presentation skills and allowed for transfer of knowledge. Interactions with scholars at UCL, seminar speakers, and applied economists in London have enhanced my network. Co-authoring with other researchers created collaborative teams at UCL, and in other institutions. As for policy translation, I wrote an article on the findings of my job market paper on the effects of the expansion of higher education for a blog of economist. The journals at which these papers are submitted, under revision or conditionally accepted, are leading peer-reviewed journals in my field of interest. I expect to publish these papers in peer-review journals.
During the fellowship, I have been working on different papers related to three topics in public economics: education, health and youth emancipation. As for education, I mainly completed papers I started before the project. The first paper analyses the effect of the increasing demand for higher education on secondary school graduates' labour market outcomes. The paper informs policy-makers that policies that increase university enrolment displace individuals who are not active in the labour market, and have also an effect on the labour market outcomes of individuals who do not invest in higher education, through compositional effects. The paper is currently being submitted at the Economics of Education review.
In another paper, Kevin Denny (University College Dublin) and myself estimate the effect of class size on educational attainment of high school graduates, using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) collected in 2003 for the United States and the United Kingdom. This paper finds that students do better on mathematics tests if classes are larger. This finding may appear to be counter-intuitive but it is by no means unusual: students may do better in classes where there are many students similar to themselves, parents' may compensate the investment in low-quality education by increasing other investments, or teachers may adapt their teaching style to the class size. An across-the-board policy of reducing class size will in general be an expensive investment in education although there may be particular circumstances or populations where it can be demonstrated to be warranted. Our evidence suggests that aside from being expensive it is also counter-productive. The paper has been conditionally accepted by Labour Economics. An article on our results appeared on the Irish Economy blog please see http://www.irisheconomy.ie/ for more details.
A third paper co-authored with Prof. Gilberto Turati (University of Turin, Italy) provides evidence on the sources of differences in inequalities in educational scores in Spain, Italy, Germany and France by breaking them down into their determining factors. Using PISA data from the 2000 to the 2006 waves, the paper shows that inequalities decreased in Germany and Spain whilst they increased in France and Italy. The breakdown shows that educational inequalities do not only reflect background-related inequality, but especially schools' characteristics. The findings enable policy-makers to target areas that may make a contribution to reducing educational inequalities. The paper is under second review at Education Economics.
Another paper, co-authored with Profs. Bertola (EDHEC Business School, France) and Checchi (University of Milan), analyses the heterogeneous pattern of selection into private schools across countries. Using Pisa 2009 data, we find that private schools cater to slower learners, and deliver worse test performances in countries where public schooling is better suited to high-talent students. Our results suggest caution in advocating public voucher schemes and other policies meant to make private education affordable for poorer families. Such policies improve both equality of opportunities and the productivity of society's educational resources if liquidity constraints keep poor and talented youth from attending better private schools. The paper has been submitted to Education Economics.
In another paper, I review the different policies implemented in several OECD countries in order to contrast the decline in enrolment in scientific degrees. The paper offers a spectrum of alternative interventions to contrast the decline in interest in science. Unfortunately, their implementation does not allow the causal effects of these policies to be identified.
Finally, I bought data from YouGov to analyse the relationship between education, financial literacy and indebtedness. This is still a work in progress.
The other two papers focused on conditional cash transfer programmes. The first paper, co-authored with Prof. Orazio Attanasio and Marcos Vera Hernandez (UCL), studies the effect of the conditionality requirement on child preventive health care and health status using data from the Colombian Familias en Acion programme. Findings show that lack of conditionality reduces by 53 % the number of growth and development check-ups that a child receives. An additional check-up reduces by 4.7 % a childs probability of suffering from acute diarrhoea, and increases by 14.6 % of a standard deviation his/her height. The paper shows policy-makers that although conditionality increases the cost of running a conditional cash-transfer programme, it has beneficial effects in ensuring children comply with preventive care, and that in turn preventive care improves children health status.
The third paper, co-authored with Ainhoa Aparicio (Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy) focuses on a conditional cash-transfer programme implemented in Spain since 2008. The cash transfer contingent in young adults' rented accommodation was introduced to promote youngsters' emancipation. The paper investigates the hypothesis that youngsters delay emancipation and family formation because they are budget constrained. Findings indicate that the subsidy increases the probability of emancipating by 0.9-2.3 % and couple cohabitation by 1.2-2.4 %. Emancipated individuals increase the probability of having at least one child by 4.8-8.1 %. The subsidy is more effective for young adults at the lower end of the income distribution, and for those living in high rental price areas. These results help policy-makers to better design this policy in such a way to target the subsidy according to rental price, and the individuals' income. The paper is an IZA Working Paper.
Project impact
Working on these papers has strengthened my ability to implement empirical analysis to educational issues, improved my knowledge of education economics, and widened my knowledge to two other topics in public economics: health and youth emancipation. Presenting the results in conferences and workshops has improved my presentation skills and allowed for transfer of knowledge. Interactions with scholars at UCL, seminar speakers, and applied economists in London have enhanced my network. Co-authoring with other researchers created collaborative teams at UCL, and in other institutions. As for policy translation, I wrote an article on the findings of my job market paper on the effects of the expansion of higher education for a blog of economist. The journals at which these papers are submitted, under revision or conditionally accepted, are leading peer-reviewed journals in my field of interest. I expect to publish these papers in peer-review journals.